Abstract: An entity of a private communications network (24, 26, 28), such as a controller (70) of an ACD system (24), controls the operation of a network router (30) of a public communications network (12, 14, 16), thereby eliminating the need in a network-routing system to send sensitive event or status information of the private network to the network router. The entity collects and processes locally the status information about the private network, and whenever it detects (704) that the workload balance in the private network needs readjusting, it sends (710) a new routing sequence message to the network router. These messages specify the routing scheme to the network router. A routing sequence message contains a pair (404, 406) of routing sequences. Each is an ordered sequence of destination route points (408). The first establishes a load balance and the second maintains the load balance.